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Coach Allen Wednesday

Head Coach Dennis Allen addressed the media following Wednesday's practice.

On the Saints: “They’re a good football team. Obviously they didn’t start the season the way they wanted to, but the way that they’ve played over the last five weeks, they’ve played exceptionally well. It’s obviously going to be a tough challenge going against that team. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

On how his team at the Saints led to his head coaching position: “It was huge. I started coaching in the National Football League in Atlanta, but really I grew up in the National Football League in New Orleans. I got a lot of good memories there. We were able to win a championship, so it was a big part of my development as a coach.”

On the Saints bouncing back from 0-4 start: “They’ve got a good locker room in there. They’ve got good leadership. It’s a good organization so I’m not surprised with the leadership that they have that they’ve been able to battle back.”

On keeping the Saints offense off the field: “It’s going to have to be a team game. They’re really good on offense. They move the ball exceptionally well; they score points. We’re going to have to play a team game to win this one.”

On what makes Drew Brees special: “It’s a lot of things. It’s hard to put your finger on one exact thing. He’s the ultimate competitor. The way he prepares is as good as anybody I’ve seen. He’s got outstanding football instincts and intelligence and he’s as accurate a passer as I’ve seen. I’ve got a lot of respect for Drew Brees. I think he’s, not only a heck of a quarterback, but a heck of a person too.”

On Tyvon Branch and Matt Giordano: “Giordano didn’t practice today. He’ll continue the NFL testing. Branch, he’s got a sore neck, so we’ll see where he’s at tomorrow and see if we can get something out of him tomorrow.”

On if he’s surprised that Myers is back so fast: “No, not really. We’ve got very qualified medical people. There’s a certain protocol you have to go through, through the NFL, and sometimes it’s a little more significant than in others. You just have to take each one of them on an individual basis and evaluate them. They felt like Brandon was fully cleared to participate.”

On if the number of points given up by both defenses so far makes Sunday likely to be a shoot out: “Listen, a lot of times they turn out different than what people think. You don’t know what’s going to happen until you get out there on Sunday. You have to make adjustments to whatever is happening during the game. We’re preparing for whatever comes at us as well as I’m sure they are.”

On Khalif Barnes: “He looked good. He took a majority of the reps with the first team today.”

On new LB Omar Gaither: “He’s a veteran guy. He’s smart, got some football instincts. So it was good to see him out here working today. I think he’ll get caught up pretty quickly.”

On the Saints run defense improvement: “I think it really comes down to guys just executing and tackling better. They play extremely hard and they’ve done a nice job of getting guys to the ball. I’m sure as you look at it with [Jonathan] Vilma coming back, that’s really helped their defense too.”

On what it means to get Barnes back: “It’ll be good because he’s an experienced guy. He’s played a lot of football. I think he’ll help us, not only in the run game, but also the passing game.”

On Saints RB Chris Ivory: “He’s a tough, physical back and he’s been that way since he’s been there. He’s a guy that’s really hard to tackle, runs extremely hard. I think the thing they do as well as anybody in the National Football League is they utilize their personnel. They know exactly what guys can do and they put them in those positions and let them do those things.”

On if utilizing their personnel well is on both sides of the ball: “Yes.”

On McFadden and Goodson for Sunday: “I would say questionable right now.”

On the running back rotation if they can’t play: “Yeah, I would expect something similar [to last week].”

On Richard Seymour: “Again, I would think he’s questionable for this week, but all those guys are getting better, it’s just a matter of if they’re going to be better in time for Sunday or not.”

On Saints coach Joe Vitt’s stat that teams giving up over 50 points in a game that come back home the following week are 5-1: “Joe’s got a stat for everything.”

On how teams that gave up 50 score 26, rush for 146 yard and give up 20: “Well, hopefully he’s right.”

On if Vitt used to come to him with stats like that: “Oh we had stats all the time. I think he does a great job with that stuff. He’ll do a heck of a job getting that team ready to play, getting that team motivated and they’ll be ready to play.”

On what Taiwan Jones needs to do to get more time: “Same things I’ve been saying for the last couple of weeks. He’s got to prove to us that he can stay healthy, that he’s going to know exactly what to do on every single play and that he can protect the football. We’ll give him those opportunities in practice and as he shows us that he’s going to be able to do that, he’ll see more and more time.”

On if he’s seen improvement: “Actually there was some improvement last week, so hopefully there’s continued improvement this week.”

On if Jones has expressed frustration: “No.”

On the punt return situation: “We’ve addressed the situation with Phillip [Adams] and he understands that he’s got to protect the football. We’ll continue to monitor that as we go along, but he’s got to protect the football better.”

On the backup punt returner: “Well Denarius [Moore] is the guy that’s worked it in practice so he would be the guy to go in there and do that.”

On if Giordano can’t play: “The good news is we don’t have to worry about whether he can play or not today, so we’ll kind of keep that under our hat a little bit until this weekend.”

On placing Shawntae Spencer on injured reserve: “No, really it was just a matter of the progress wasn’t as fast as either he nor us as an organization wanted and we were in a situation from an injury standpoint that we had to get roster spots and get some guys on the active roster. It was not an easy decision but sometimes you have to make those decisions as you get into the season and you need roster spots.”